


Set My Soul Alight

by Demenior



Series: Jaegermorphs [4]
Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Incest, M/M, but no one knows they're related, dorks everywhere, not even me, or if they're actually dating
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-07
Updated: 2013-08-07
Packaged: 2017-12-22 16:55:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/915683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Demenior/pseuds/Demenior
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What the Jaegermorph-verse Animorphs get up to in their spare time when they're not being mentally traumatized or washing floors. Mostly shenanigans and attempts at dating.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. No Girls Allowed

**Author's Note:**

> I s2g the next thing I write will have actual fight scenes in it. I just get caught up in how the characters interract in an AU that I just focus on worldbuilding. So, cross my heart n hope to die, next Jaegermorph installation will have an actual Kaiju battle.
> 
> Also I'll post a legit timeline that i'll keep updated on tumblr so y'all can figure out where every story goes in my weird non-linear plot.
> 
> But for now- enjoy kids being cute.

 “Hey, what do you say about a sleepover? I’ve got some decent games and new movies,” Marco said over lunch. Rachel and Cassie were just on their way back from the buffet line.

Jake lit up, “Yeah, that’d be awesome!”

 

Marco knew that Jaeger pilots didn’t like being apart very long—but he never thought it was going to be _this_ hard to get his best friend away from Rachel. He tried not to look like he was _really_ excited when he heard the knock at his door. Marco took three seconds to calm himself down and opened his room to face _two_ tall, white Jaeger pilots.

“Dude,” Marco said, “sleepover means boys night. As in—no girls allowed.”

Both Jake and Rachel looked confused, “But we always sleep together,” Jake said, “besides, Rachel’s awesome.”

“No,” Marco said, “she’s had you for five years—let me get one freaking night. Besides—you are _not_ sleeping with your girlfriend while I’m in the same room.”

“I didn’t mean _sex_!” Jake said, probably louder than he intended.

At the same time Rachel went bright red and looked, for once, tongue-tied and possibly wanting to say she _wasn’t_ Jake’s girlfriend.

“Look,” Marco rolled his eyes, “we can have big group sleepovers another time. I just wanted to hang out bro-to-bro. Can we go see if Cassie wants to have a sleepover with Rachel?”

Instead of answering Jake looked to Rachel for her response. She flipped her hair over her shoulder, composing herself, “Who wants to sleep in your smelly little room anyways,” she said, “I’m sure Cassie will be much more fun.”


	2. Just Say It!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cassie wants to date Jake, badly. But first she needs to figure out if he and Rachel are dating or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cassie's taking more of the innitiative in her and Jake's relationship here, because Jake's an oblivious dork.

Cassie put her hands into her pockets, trying to look casual even though she felt _so_ out of place in the Ranger wings. She felt like she was slouching too much and pulled her hands out, trying to swing them by her side but then she felt like she looked ridiculous. She shoved her hands back into her pockets to keep from hitting anyone and accepted that she wasn’t going to feel comfortable at _all_ until this was over.

She was going to ask Jake to… to _what_. Originally she’d set out to ask him to a picnic. On the roof of the Shatterdome where Tobias showed her. But that seemed too forward _plus_ what if Rachel was mad at her for trying to date Jake? So then, to go to dinner? What if she asked him to join her in the lab? That was dumb because _what_ would he do in the lab. Jake killed Kaiju he wasn’t interested in playing with parts of them.

Jake’s door loomed before her far too quickly. She swallowed, loudly, and nearly choked. Of course, if Cassie was to truly _never_ have a chance with Jake, this would be the opportune moment for him to step outside. Thankfully he didn’t open his door.

Carefully she reached forwards to knock, and hesitated. How hard should she knock? If it was too quiet she’d have to knock again—but if he heard her the first time she’d just be annoying. But if she knocked too hard she might sound angry or startle him if he was sleeping.

Just then Rachel came around the corner, likely from the halls bathroom as her hair was wet and she was wrapped in a towel.

“Hey, Cassie,” she said, “how are you?”

“Fine!” Cassie said, and could hear her voice hit notes too high to be normal, but was unable to control it.

Rachel paused a moment to assess Cassie standing with her hand raised at Jake’s door, “Are you looking for Jake?”

“Uh, yeah,” Cassie said, “was he—did he go have a shower too? Maybe I should come by later.”

“Nah,” Rachel laughed, “he’s just having a nap—don’t worry.”

Rachel slipped into her room and Cassie let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. Biting her lip, she steeled herself and knocked on Jake’s door.

No response.

She knocked again.

“Cassie?” Jake said behind her.

Cassie jumped straight into the air, “What—hi!”

Jake’s hair was mussed and he was rubbing his eyes as he stepped out of Rachel’s room, “Sorry, I didn’t hear you. Were you waiting long?”

“No, no, not long. Um, sorry to wake you up,” he was coming out of _Rachel’s_ room where he had been _sleeping_. This was a terrible idea Cassie needed to abort abort abort.

Jake grinned and Cassie’s knees went weak, “Don’t worry, I overslept. I’m a little hungry; did you want to grab dinner with Rachel and me?”

Cassie spoke before she realized she should say _no_ , “Sure.”

Rachel hopped out of the room, pulling on a knitted sweater that Cassie had seen Jake wear before. She tried to look like she _wasn’t_ staring.

“I’m starving,” Rachel announced. She linked arms with Jake and Cassie and headed off towards the mess hall.

“Oh,” Jake said, “Cassie—what were you looking for me for?”

“It was nothing,” Cassie said, staring at her feet.

“It was _not_ ,” Rachel said, “just spit it out!”

“I was just—if you’re free—did you want to see what I do in the lab?” Cassie asked.

Rachel made a face, “Sorry, Cassie, but _boring_.”

“I’d like that,” Jake said, “it’d be cool to see the parts up close.”

If Rachel hadn’t been holding her up, Cassie might have tripped over her own feet.


	3. Threats Before Breakfast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marco is starting to regret getting involved with these idiots. Cassie and Jake are disgustingly cute. Tobias is second-hand embarrassment incarnate. Rachel is... Rachel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you imagine Tobias as the Basket Case girl from the Breakfast Club all of your Animorphs readings will increase in enjoyment by 9999%

“Rachel is _terrifying_ ,” Marco announced, sitting down for breakfast.

“And beautiful,” Tobias whispered to his oatmeal. Cassie and Marco pretended not to hear him.

“What did she do this time?” Cassie asked.

“Jake and I were going to shoot some hoops this morning before he had to do some stuff for my mom, but of course he sleeps in and when he does show up its with her—like do they actually just get up at the same time _every_ day?”

“They sleep together,” Cassie said quietly.

Tobias choked and Marco had to reach across the table to slap him on the back.

“Shit,” Tobias said.

“No,” Marco said quickly, “like—they share a room. Ranger shit. They don’t like sleeping alone. It’s really weird and like codependent-ly creepy.”

“Really?” Tobias asked. Cassie was looking at Marco with the same wide-eyed, grinning face that Tobias had.

“Seriously you two need to get your act together and just _ask_ them out already or get over it,” Marco muttered.

“But… we don’t know if they’re together or not. It would be _rude_ to ask them out, and it would make everything awkward between us,” Cassie said.

Marco shrugged, “You’ll never know unless you ask. Seriously. You know how Jaeger pilots are—they act like they’re dating even if they’re related. Save the kissy stuff. And even if they’re not dating, they might not be interested in having anyone else involved. Then again—they could be totally interested or one is interested and they just don’t know how to talk to someone they haven’t drifted with.”

“Well that’s good news,” Cassie said.

“Yeah,” Tobias said, and he couldn’t stop smiling.

“So as I was saying,” Marco said, “Jake and Warrior Princess show up and she sits and watches while Jake and I play a few rounds, then she starts getting all mouthy and trash talking. So I tell her to put her money where her mouth is and she walks up and grabs me like she’s gonna _kiss_ me!”

Tobias nearly choked again.

“Dude, _seriously_?” Marco snapped, “I am _so_ not interested. She’s hot, but psycho. Anyways, I push her off cause hell no I don’t need to get involved in this weird love quadrant y’all have going on, and then she starts talking about how I’d probably rather kiss Jake instead and tells us to do it!”

“Do you?” Cassie asked.

Marco rolled his eyes so hard he thought he might sprain something, “oh my god. I am _not_ interested in being competition for you two. Sure, Jake’s totally a hot guy _and_ he’s a Ranger. If he were interested, yes I would smooch him. But considering he’s got Xena and _you_ to choose from, no thank you. Getting back to my story—I tell Rachel to shove off and she challenges me to a basketball game and loser has to do whatever the winner says. Of course she threatens my manhood and Jake is a giant pushover and can’t see she’s crazy so he goes and sits down and cheers us on.”

“Who won?” Tobias was watching Marco under his bangs.

“I did,” Marco said, “by default. She _cheated_ and tackled me, did some Ranger-fu and made it so I couldn’t feel anything below my _knees_ then went and scored all her points.”

“Wait—that means she won,” Cassie said.

“No, basketball is a contact- _free_ game! She can’t just ambush me like that!”

Tobias lifted his chin to stare at Marco, “So did you dare her?”

“I tried to tell her to be nice to me for a whole day, but she’s adamant that she won. And Jake, again, is wrapped so tightly around her finger that he won’t say anything in my defense.”

“And that’s why Rachel’s terrifying?” Cassie asked.

“No,” Marco said, “what’s terrifying is that she promised she’d get her revenge on me. _That’s_ terrifying. I am literally going to be paranoid for the next twenty-four hours because _how_ does a psycho exact their revenge?”

Rachel’s tray slammed down beside Tobias so hard that all three of them leapt out of their seats. Jake laughed at their reaction, sitting down beside Rachel and across from Cassie.

“Morning,” he grinned, smiling at her. His long legs knocked hers under the table and she resisted the initial impulse to move them for fear of being rude. Jake didn’t shift and so their knees stayed touching and Cassie had to force herself to focus on the conversation.

“So Tobias,” Rachel said, “do you have any plans this evening?”

Tobias drew in a ragged breath and they watched as he struggled to look Rachel in the face. He was already blushing. Marco pitied him. Rachel would eat him alive.

The two of them remained staring at each other for an uncomfortable amount of time, until Rachel repeated her question.

“Yes!” Tobias shouted, “I mean no. no plans. Do you have plans?”

“Lets get dinner,” Rachel grinned, “do you think we can sneak onto the rooftop?”

“Yes,” Tobias nodded so quickly his head might have flown off. His hazel eyes were as wide as dinner plates.

“I’m going to steal all of your friends,” Rachel hissed to Marco, then turned back to Tobias and grinned, “perfect. It’s a date.”

Then she leaned in and kissed him.

Tobias accidentally slapped his milk off the table and jumped to his feet in embarrassment. He was shaking and looked nervously between the spilled milk and Rachel’s amused expression.

He shrunk until his face was nearly touching the table.

“I think I have a little milk on me,” Rachel said to Jake, looking down at her clothes, “I’m gonna go change. Tell Eva I’ll be a few minutes late?”

Jake nodded, “Just make sure to take something to eat.”

Rachel leaned in to kiss him, “See you in a few.”

Jake took another large bite of his omelet and finally noticed the faces staring at him, “What? Is there something on my face?”


End file.
